you're watching an nbc bay area special. tonight, bay area proud. >> i'm almost blue in the face holding my breath for the moment where it will lift off. >> he was there during one of man's greatest moments, the landing on the moon. but he reveals what it was like to be there during one of man's darkest hours. she found it on craigslist, her purpose in life. >> that's was it. >> what this mother saw that put her on a path to help babies who need what she has to give. four to six weeks and four to six months -- >> a prognosis that might have pushed her over the edge but she

pushed right back. >> when i heard that i said let's get married. >> tonight the story of the bay area ground swell that sent this bride down the aisle in style. here's nbc bay area's garvin thomas. good evening we begin by introducing you to a remarkable bride. it's true almost every bride says her wedding day is the best in her life. but this bride is different. this day is one of the few left in her life. her story is so captivating our initial report about the outpouring of support to give her a beautiful wedding day spread around the world on social media. tonight the full story, he fight, her wedding day and her thoughts about it all after the last of the guests had said good-bye. time can be a tricky thing, no matter what any clock tells you,

time doesn't move at a steady pace, something jen bullock knows too well. you see, the few days left until her wedding to jeff lange can't go fast enough. what is likely to happen a few months after that? well -- jen and jeff met six years ago. she was a hairdresser, he, a yoga instructor. jen making people beautiful on the outside, jeff, on their inside. a friend thought these two opposites would attract. >> she's, like, you know, he kind of took all my weirdness in stride. i think he would be good for you. >> reporter: there was talk of a wedding. they shopped for rings just about the time it turned out that jen developed a cough she couldn't shake. >> they diagnosed pneumonia.

i'm 35. they weren't thinking this is something else. >> reporter: in january, came the diagnosis. lung cancer, stage iv. last month came the prognosis. >> four to six weeks untreated, and four to six months treated. so when i heard that i said, let's get married. because i wanted a purpose for life. >> reporter: they gave themselves two weeks to plan a wedding and reception in jen's parents, backyard. that was until a friend posted a plea for help on a seethe site for wedding planners. >> this is an opportunity to do something extraordinary for someone else. why not?

i never thought about the bamboo -- >> reporter: erica, a social worker turned wedding planner thought she would help a little bit on if wedding day but stumbled on jen's pinterest account and pictures of what jen imagined her wedding would look like, one that time and money would make impossible. well impossible until erica decided to get jen everything on that page. a job that would normally take months, she did in two weeks, corralling goods and services from more than 60 vendors worth more than $50,000, all of it donated for free. >> it was my goal to have them not pay a dime. i thought to myself, these people have suffered enough. and why not be able to give them a gift? you know? a wonderful gift that both of

them will never forget and their families will never forget. >> i think it's amazing the generosity in their hearts and that they're so touched by our story. and that that's -- that's -- i guess it -- that people have feelings. >> reporter: so the plan was set for the last saturday in july. jen and jeff saying their vows under the redwood trees of a nearby park and a marching band leading them back to jen's parents house transformed into something magical. where jen bullock would likely wish time could stand still. >> thank you for coming here -- >> reporter: but time doesn't, which is why video is so great. jen and jeff, able two weeks later to relive what truly was their dream wedding, unsure to

this day -- >> i now pronounce you -- >> if it wasn't all a dream. >> it was magical. it was -- it was the magic moment that we were going for. >> reporter: and erica, able to look back and realize that, yes, she did pull all this off. >> i thought it was amazing. truly one of the best weddings i've ever done. >> reporter: but the wedding it turns out was just part of it. after the original story on jen and jeff aired it was views, shared, posted and tweeted thousands of times. people began sending words of encourage and praise. >> i thought i was in an alternate world. i'm just jen bullock and all of these people want to hear what i have to say. >> reporter: the highlight for jen was when chuck norris wrote

a lengthy blog post trumpeting jen's courage and strength. >> the people coming out and saying, like, i've always thought -- i knew you were unique and the strongest person i have ever known and i didn't know that. >> reporter: the events of these past few weeks have clearly changed jeff and jen's lives. but it turns out they weren't the only ones. erica, who started the whole thing just trying to help two people, and ended up touching so many lives, says the way she lives her own is forever changed. >> taking it day by day, minute by minute and just savoring every single moment. i don't think i've ever lived my life that way and i'm starting to learn how to do that after meeting jen and jeff. >> a fund has been set up on

giveforward.com to help cover jen's medical expenses. so far strangers have donated more than $56,000 to the campaign. while they didn't have plans for a honeymoon, people have donated stays for them in half-moon bay, carpal -- and tahoe. he finally feels at home. and home to him is lawrence berkeley lab. how he landed a role in one of the lab's biggest projects working with scientists twice or thee times his age. and she found it on craigslist, what she calls her calling in life. what this young mom saw that put her on a path to help hundreds of other mothers. stay with us, baby area proud is just getting started

. one thing we've learned

through our bay area proud series is that the bay area is home to some of the smartest people you will find anywhere. this is a post baccalaureate fellow at lawrence berkeley lab. that is someone between college and grad school. he was the subject of this bay area proud. on the grounds of the lawrence berkeley national laboratory underneath the dome of building number 6 is where you find the advanced light source where electrons are pushed to such a speed they create a beam of light one billion times brighter than the sun. and it's where at the end of the beamline this fight bright light encounters something else bright and light. you see, you have to be to be where he is at his age.

>> i'm 19. >> reporter: around his hometown of baton rouge, louisiana he is known as the kid who graduated with a degree in physics from southern university around the age many of his peers hadn't finished high school. it was nothing new for him. he has been advanced for his age from a young age. >> that started when i was three years old. >> reporter: when his father decided to home school him until age five. problem was, dad did too good a job. >> by the time i was five i was reading and doing math on a fourth grade level. >> reporter: he retired from being a teacher to other people's children to teach his for the next nine years. >> i love my dad for that. >> reporter: while he says being one of a kind in college wasn't too bad, being one of the gang at berkeley is much, much better. >> for me it's great because

i've never felt normal before. i never felt not different. >> this thing should be up higher. >> reporter: he says his success story is a simple one about a dedicated father passing on to his son a dedication to hard work. it's also a story he is tired of telling. >> honestly, yes, i'm pretty much ready to move past that. >> there is a certain amount -- >> reporter: you see, he no longer wants people to see him as smart for his age. he is ready to be seen as smart, period. >> if you are wondering what kind of dedication it took, home school in their home was in session seven days a week, 365 days a year. if it's another thing silicon valley is known for it's building the future. still, there is plenty of history around us the kind of history that comes from al, a

friendly 78-year-old face in palo alto. this one man, not just a witness to but a participant in the 20th century's darkest hour and its greatest accomplishments. >> many of my models, are weathered to look authentic. >> reporter: it's his hobby of model making of years of carefully piece together boats and trains, trucks and cranes that have kept his hands and mindage ill into his eighth decade of life. what a life it's been. he was born in germany in the 1930s. hitler was in power. and the family was jewish. >> a lot of people saw the writing on the wall more clearly than my family did. because they lived in bigger

cities. >> reporter: the night of broken glass when germans vandalized jewish homes and places of worship was a turning point for them. >> the memory is as clear as if it happened now. it happened in 1938. >> reporter: al's family was able to escape one year later. >> when we left germany my family and i were literally the last jews to get out of town. everybody who stayed never made it. they were all sent to concentration camps. >> reporter: but his brushes with history were not done. he came to america a decade later showing an interest and aptitude in science taking a job with grumman aircraft and landing a spot on the biggest project around. apollo 11, the mission that landed the first human on the moon. >> i was assigned to the

propulsion group and we realized what a tremendous challenge this was. because at the time in the early '60s we knew nothing about space. >> reporter: a survivor of mankind's darkest hour was now part of its singular achievement. >> and they separate. >> reporter: he was on the team responsible for the rocket propulsion for apollo 11's lunar lander the vehicle that got the team to the moon but more importantly for al, got them off of it as well. >> i'm almost blue in the face holding my breath for the moment where it actually will lift off. >> reporter: until our interview he never put together his special place in history, his connection to the high and the low. the message to the rest of us? never forget either. >> the darkest day in the 20th century will and should be and

must be preserved just as the greatest day. >> al has one more message for the rest of us. and that's to reinvest in the sp space program and get americans excited about exploration the way they were in the '60s and '70s. >> i think you can get out there and explore areas that you think you know that you haven't been to you don't understand what's out there. >> how this man got off the beaten track right outside his front door and how he is showing all of us about the world we live in. and the white house is 3,000 miles away but the work of this bay area woman captured the first lady's attention anyway. what she's doing that got her a white house nod.

a bay area woman is basking in the glow of presidential praise. she is the director of the youth employment partnership and if you ask her how she got to

washington, d.c. she'll take you up on the roof to show you the solar panels. she sayser is solar panels are just the tip of the iceberg. >> we're extremely flattered but we are feeling like we have been invited to the wrong party. >> reporter: what she says they are good at is educating, training and getting jobs for teenagers. they train teenagers with marketable skills to get them on a good path. while she loves the nod of approval from the white house she is most proud of building healthy teen, which can help build a healthy city. ask any new mom or dad about the stresses of the first year of a baby's life and get ready

for a long conversation. but for some the stresses start with feeding and clothing their babies. some mothers need help with this. thanks to them lisa klein has a computer and a heart. they combine in an unlikely way. spend just a few minutes wandering through the online bazaar that is craigslist and you will be amazed. search long enough, and you just might end up finding a purpose in life. at least that's what lisa kline found eight years ago in the days following hurricane katrina. touched like so many of us were by the devastation she saw on the evening news, lisa searched for a way to help, searched craigslist, new orleans. one posting in particular from a church turned emergency shelter caught her eye. >> she said we need everything. we need blankets, sleeping bags,

medicine, baby clothes. that was it. >> reporter: so lisa, a new mother herself at the time, asked for donations from her circle of friends. >> i received 400 pounds of baby clothes in two days. and the next day i woke up and there was more baby clothes on my porch and the next day more baby clothes. >> reporter: from that single posting was born a singular mission to provide used baby clothing for mothers who are unable to provide it themselves. >> i feel like i was put on this earth to do this on a grand scale. >> reporter: loved twice is the name that lisa gave her non-profit. on this day, 20 volunteers have come to help her sort 500 pounds of donated clothes. each box they fill contains enough clothing for a boy or girl's first year of life.

>> so many people want to help. i think that's one of the reasons that it's successful. >> reporter: lisa and her volunteers have created some 8,000 boxes. the boxes are then delivered to social workers across the bay area who, in turn, give them to mothers in need. they are women lisa never sees but sometimes hears from. >> my -- >> the letters these women send letting lisa know what they were able to do with the money they didn't have to use for clothes. >> i can't imagine that. so to know that we're clothing these babies who were perhaps born into a world they did not choose, i think that's why it is so successful. still ahead, look around it's easy to see why living in the bay area is a beautiful thing. one bay area man decided he needed to see it. the adventure he laid out for himself is next. versity.

and this is my home team. this is my large lecture hall. this is my professor. and also my coach. this is my booster club. this is the guy who's graduating ready for a great career in technology. [ male announcer ] in 2012, 90% of devry university grads actively seeking employment had careers in their field in 6 months. find your career success in the bay area. learn how at devry.edu.

living on cloud nine with that u-verse wireless receiver. you see in my day, when my mom was repainting the house, you couldn't just set up a tv in the basement. i mean, come on! nope. we could only watch tv in the rooms that had a tv outlet. yeah if we wanted to watch tv someplace else, we'd have to go to my aunt sally's. have you ever sat on a plastic covered couch? [ kids cheering ] you're missing a good game over here. those kids wouldn't have lasted one day in our shoes. [ male announcer ] switch and add a wireless receiver. get u-verse tv for $19 a month for 2 years with qualifying bundles rethink possible.

if there is one thing it's tough to be proud of around here it's the cost of living. but the payoff in natural beauty is fantastic. all a car ride away. but what if you don't have a car? >> life's more interesting when you veer off the beaten path. i have discovered that out here. >> reporter: curt is your guy. the san francisco man set himself a challenge for the month of june, walk the entire bay trail. that's a path that circumnavigates san francisco bay that's hundreds of miles long. curt not only wanted to walk in the a month he wanted to sleep in his own bed every night and never use his car. what that means is every day he took public transportation to where he left the trail the day before and returned home the

same way every night. curt says the public transportation part was surprisingly easy. what also surprised him was seeing the bay from a whole new way, even after living here for 20 years. >> and i think that unless you get out and explore areas that you think you know and haven't been to you don't understand what's out there. >> reporter: curt not only completed the journey but blogged about it every day. you can find a link to his blog on our website, bayareaproud.com. we hope you enjoyed this past half hour of the good stuff. this isn't the only place you can find us. you can see us tuesday and thursday in our 5:00 p.m. newscast. and we are also online. you can watch some or all of the pay ar bay area proud stories.

you can find a link to follow me on twitter and like me on facebook and find a way to send an e-mail about the person you think we should profile next. we are always looking for people who are making the bay area proud. thank you for joining us. we'll see you here next time.

welcome to "on the money." coming to you today from outside the new york stock exchange. stocks stumble weeks after hitting record highs. this is a correction or a summer stall? two top market watchers on what the numbers say about the health of the economy and your money. some say the american dream has packed up for a new neighborhood. a look at the good life block by block. making the grade before kids go back to school. in a big season for retailers are the inside look at what tomorrow's generation of consumers want today. "on the money" begins right now. >> this is america's number one financial news program. "on the money" now, maria bartiromo. >> what's making news as we head into a new week. a